The Taking of Pelham 123 Blu-ray Review

How does Tony Scott's remake rank on Blu?

The Taking of Pelham 123, a remake of the 1974 classic of the same name and adapted from the novel by John Godey, follows a New York City subway dispatcher, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), caught up in a hostage crisis. When the eponymous train is hijacked underground by a mysterious bad guy dubbed "Ryder" (John Travolta) and his goons (including Luis Guzmán), Garber finds himself the villain's unwilling conduit to the authorities. Ryder demands that the city pay him $10 million within an hour otherwise he'll start killing off his 18 hostages.

Ryder takes a shine to Garber, who he learns is under investigation for bribery, a rapport that the authorities (led by John Turturro as a sympathetic hostage negotiator) and Garber's boss (Michael Rispoli) find curious. The scandal-tarred, wealthy mayor (an amusingly beleaguered James Gandolfini) who can't wait to leave office is also dragged into the fray. Ryder's true identity and agenda become clearer with each nugget of personal information that he imparts to Garber. But even if Ryder gets his money, just how does he intend to escape from a subway crawling with cops?

The Taking of Pelham 123 is a lot like riding the subway: It moves along at a decent pace, hitting all the stops you'd expect it to make before reaching its preordained destination. In other words, this is a suspense movie without any real suspense in it. It's perfectly rote summer entertainment, diverting and pleasing enough, but it's disappointing and ironic that a thriller set aboard a train ended up being so pedestrian.

Pelham 123 gets the gold star for impressive detail and image depth. From the pores on the lead actors' faces to the New York City skyline, every scene holds up under the scrutiny of 1080p, on par with Sony's most recent films on the format.

Tony Scott movies have a very saturated, very hot color palette, with sickly greens and blood reds. This transfer can keep up with the cinematography in spades. Dimensionality is solid and the transfer maintains its film quality. Sony knows what they are doing on the Blu-ray front.

Score: 8 out of 10

Don't make Denzel angry... you won't like him when he's angry.

Languages and Audio

Pelham has two speeds: Loud and louder. Thankfully, depending on your tastes, this 5.1 Master Audio DTS-HD mix meets the demands of this gunshot-happy soundtrack. If you ever wanted to hear Travolta yell in extra villain mode, in lossless audio, then this transfer is for you.

The 5.1 mix takes advantage of the surround effects afforded the scenes on the subway car. Rear speakers capture all of the rail car sounds one would expect to hear, and they also provide solid ambient effects during city exteriors. The dialogue in the movie tends to come fast and loud, and the center channel delivers on both counts with amazing clarity -- no distortion here. The score and source music, like the Kayne track that opens the film, rattles the bass (maybe a bit too much), but overall this mix employs a stellar and dynamic sound field on par with previous Scott efforts.

Score: 8 out of 10

Extras and Packaging

With the exception of one "shruggs shoulders" extra, Pelham includes a surprisingly engaging collection of bonus features.

Scott delivers a solid, production-annecdote filled commentary, talking about his movie as though it should have been more important to audiences than it really was.

Helgeland and Black's commentary is the better of the two, as the writer's vantage point on films like this (re: remakes) is always a welcome one. Helgeland talks about how he came aboard the project, which basically involved going through a list of potential library titles to be remade and picking one that could warrant the time. Black speaks to his long-standing friendship with Helgeland, while providing logistic insight into how demanding and problematic it was, even for a big show like this, to shoot for real on the streets of NYC.

And the award for "What Were They Thinking?!" goes to "Top Down." Shot like a "Bruno" skit but only straight faced, "Top Down" is a just plain wrong inclusion here, chronicling the hair stylist's Zohan-esque work on the actors. This is really only here because they needed to fill up space, and apparently the telecine wasn't done yet on the catering truck featurette.

"No Time To Lose" focuses on shooting in real subway tunnels and recreating subway cars on sound stages, with particular emphasis on how Scott's gritty realism forced the production to come up with quick (and safe) solutions to shooting everything from intersection shoot outs to bridge chases. An above-average doc that proves at times to be more interesting than the movie.

Score: 7 out of 10

Turturro stares directly at the robot's scrotum.

The Bottom Line

Having previously collaborated on Man on Fire, writer Helgeland and director Scott took the "more is more" approach to Pelham when perhaps a subtle touch would have better serviced the story's tension. Travolta's character insists on barking obscenities and pointing automatics like some thug -- but we get it. You hijacked a train and threatened to take lives if your demands aren't met. No need to yell and swear to prove that you're the bad guy.

Despite an overcooked villain and under-appreciated Denzel, the DVD exhibits a solid presentation and an extra features package that isn't afraid to scrutinize the production.